GOD IS IN THE DETAIL

Wednesday, 28 September 2016

If you haven't watched the first presidential debate I highly recommend doing so.

It's an awesome display of... well you be the judge.

One interesting sign of the times from a comms POV.

Immediately after Donald told his first lie (about 5 mins in), Hilary invited viewers to go to her website which was running a live 'fact checker' on the debate. It both sources her own facts, and dispels Donald's lies.

'10 things brands need to learn about second screening from Hilary Clinton', is an article that will probably appear on Linkedin feeds near you soon.

Whether it will help in the 'post-factual' era, I don't know, I can't help but think she also needed a disruptive (*BUZZ WORD CLAXON*) way of getting those fact checks out there, maybe hijacking Trump supporter hashtags etc rather than just preaching to the converted.

Either way it's pretty astounding that a there is a searchable website of 'tens of thousands of words Trump has literally said,' all of which would individually, normally, sink any other political candidate...

Wednesday, 11 May 2016

Grayson Perry's latest show on Channel 4 is all about him trying to understand macho culture / masculinity in the 21st Century.

In Ep 1 he goes to meet cage fighters in the north of England.

It's clear that Perry has a prejudice about 'old school masculinity', 'why do you need to be tough'?', he shouts at them.

As he explores the futility of the out dated, tough, silent, strong man, in a world that doesn't need these qualities (the young male suicide statistics for the area told their own story) he uncovers a totally different perspective on cage fighters that radically changes his opinion.

If we could demonstrate half his ability to see from another perspective, to see through the obvious cleshes, I'm sure it would have a profound effect on our work.

Wednesday, 9 March 2016

“Water water everywhere nor any drop to drink,” The Ancient Mariner.“Data data everywhere but what the fuck to think? “ Me.In the wake of a lot of annual / quarterly / continuous reports on Mobile vs TV, I’ve tried to interpret some data into three points, that are hopefully interesting and helpful for you.1. Beware of anyone telling you live TV is dead, because it isn’tA piece of data in the
Facebook’s Q4’15 Market Snapshot (UK) report (supplied by Millward Brown) is totally at odds with other, I believe far more reliable data, with regards to Live TV & On
Demand TV viewing figures.

This is from a report
called 'A Year In TV', have a read there’s loads of great data.

2. There is a case that adspend on Mobile mobile
is underrepresented Vs share of screen

But that’s probably a good thing seeing as most
Mobile advertising is awful, intrusive and steals people’s data allowance. All
reasons why one of the biggest Mobile operators in the UK, Three, is going to block them.

3. BUT Mobile video can be as powerful as
an HD Widescreen TV

A piece of research by Ehrenberg-Bass Institute (of Byron Sharp fame) has shown
that viewing video on mobile can be as exciting or more so than on a TV. This
is particularly interesting coming from them as Sharp can sometimes sound quite
dismissive of digital / social.

"skin conductance
results showed mobile phone participants experienced the same levels of
excitement as participants who watched the larger screens.

The effect of holding
a mobile phone on excitement was stronger than the effect of viewing distance.
The effect of distance was clearest for the desktop personal computer, which
was not held in the hand"

Monday, 30 November 2015

Walt
Disney with the fawn Bambi that was kept as a pet at the studios and studied by
the artists, 1942.1

What do you see when you think of data?

Do you see excel, soporific powerpoint or hackneyed
pen portraits?

Do you see pre-testing debriefs driving brands
towards persuasion based communications, a methodology that creates less
effective work?2

Do you see Facebook and Twitter distorting
reality by counting 3 seconds of muted auto-play as a view?3

I don’t. That’s just noise.

When I think of data I see cab drivers, novels,
fields, footballers and a fawn called Bambi.

Data starts with what you want to know.

As
Einstein said, “I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more
important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination
embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It
is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.’4

Go
outside and you will see pen portraits of great depth and meaning.

‘Pick out a cab driver. He will look to you very
much like every other cab driver. But study him… [and he will be] seen in your
description as an individual, different from every other cab driver in the
world.”5

If
you want to understand situations you’ll never be in, read.

“A
great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at
the end. You live several lives while reading.”6

If you want to see how people behave, look in
the right places.

Koolhaas did
this for the hallways of his McCormick Tribune Campus Center. Before the
building existed there was an open field. Koolhass observed that the students
had carved out fairly substantial ruts in the grass from walking the same
paths. The result was a highly irregular plan with diagonal hallways.’7

Stop
leaving competitor research to the work experience.

Don Revie
created one of the most powerful football clubs in Europe during the 60's and
70's, dragging Leeds from the brink of Third Division obscurity to become the
most successful football team in the country."He compiled elaborate
dossiers on our opponents, and for an hour or so on the morning before a match
he'd analyse every one of
their players."8

Approach every question anew,
don’t be lazy and expect a one-size fits all formula to give you an answer.

‘In a
world becoming more and more this, and more and more that, but above all more
and more meditated, the only thing you can trust is the direct route to your
own experience.’9

P.S. If you enjoyed this article and would be kind enough to share it on Twitter I'd be extremely grateful!!

Sources;

1. @ClassicPics

2. Les Binet & Peter Field, The Long and the Short of It

3. Facebook, Twitter

4. Albert Einstein, On Cosmic Religion and Other Opinions and
Aphorisms

Also attributed to Michelangelo, the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and the art historian Aby Warburg. ‘The Devil is in the details’ is a variant of the proverb, referring to a catch hidden in the details. ‘Governing is in the details’’and ‘The truth, if it exists, is in the details’ are recent variants.